Got What It Takes to Change the World?(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

I watch with furrowed brow the latest television commercial hawking Allstate Insurance. Actor Dennis Haysbert points to distracted drivers and says that multitasking behind the wheel causes accidents and policyholders get a discount if they drive accident-free for six months. People are shown eating Chinese food, slathering on makeup, dropping hors d'oeuvre dogs on their laps and changing trousers while commuting. They don't pay attention to driving or the road ahead, though the sell line is that you'll be rewarded for not driving distracted.

It is disingenuous that this commercial makes no reference to mobile phone use as a multitasking distraction. It is, pure and simple. Those who believe driving while plugged to a phone is not a distraction are like emphysema patients sucking down one menthol smoke after another.

Evidence mounts about the deleterious effects of cell phone use when driving. Whether anecdotal-witnessing an in-car, one-person shouting match-or laboratory-proven (recently from Vanderbilt University), the answer is the same: Only a fool would use a mobile phone while driving.

The Vanderbilt data show that a normal, healthy brain struggles when charged with multitasking; one function shuts down to achieve another. "We found ...